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Daiwa 2009 Saltist 2 Speed Reel Review

0:30 Announcer: SaltwaterFishing247.com helping you catch that fish of a lifetime.

0:41 Good morning. I'm Captain Blaine Anderson. I wanted to take a couple of minutes this morning to talk about the reels that I use in my charters and my personal fishing.

For the last couple of years I've been using the Daiwa Saltist, in particular the size 20. They make a 20, 30, 40 and 50. This particular reel here is a high speed, 6.1:1 retrieve. It's been a real workhorse for me, wonderful drag, lots of power. It's taken a beating over the last couple of years of charters. As attached as I am to this reel here I wanted to take a couple of minutes and show you something new out here that I think is really exciting.

1:18 Daiwa has just introduced a new line of Saltist reels in lever drag. Lever drags are a first, this year for Daiwa in their Saltist series. The nice thing about this reel is it's still that 6.1:1 retrieve which is great for deep water jigging. I, in particular, I use it for all my live lining and three wing big baits here in Long Island Sound. We can be fishing in as little as three feet of water on any given morning to as much as 80. This makes it nice and easy coming up out of deep water.

They also make it in a single speed as well as a two speed. This here with the blue handle, blue accents happens to be their two speed. In low gear, this reel is a 3.1:1. In high speed it's a 6.1:1. So we still have that high speed retrieve that I really like.

2:06 Drag on this thing is incredibly smooth, just as smooth as the old style. The only difference being that now it's a lever drag. The advantage of a lever drag over the conventional type star drag is that it's really easy to adjust, particularly when we're out there live lining. I've got clients on board that may or may not be experienced. This really takes all the work out of it.

It's as simple as going into free spool here, dropping the lever all the way down and you can see the spool here just allows line to come off nice and easy. As that fish is running, we can...you can adjust this drag. I prefer to leave it right in strike mode already. But I've got my drag preset to where I want it, where this line still comes off the reel nice and easy. Keep in mind some of these baits that we use can be 18 to 20 inches in length. And we're fishing for some big fish. So I do want a little bit of resistance here.

3:00 Once that fish is running, and it comes time to set up on him, it's as simple as just pushing this lever forward. I like to set my drag about as tight as I think I'm going to be able to fight that fish or that I want to fight that fish, where the drag is pretty snug here. What this allows me to do now is really put the boots to the fish, get him to the boat as quickly as possible. And now the beauty of it is you get that big fish of a lifetime next to the boat, you know darn well he's going to make one more big run. The worst thing you can do is have three feet of line out on a pretty stout rod, trying to land that fish. He makes his run that's when everybody snaps their rod.

This allows me, quickly and easily, to back the drag off just enough to take that stress off your line, off your knots and off the rod. If that fish makes another run, you get him turned around. He's back to the boat. He's all yours.

3:49 As we said there's two different versions of this reel. There's a single speed and this one here with the blue accents is their two speed. Two two speed in high gear 6.3:1 retrieve which is really nice for that deep water jigging. Low gear on it is a 3.1:1 retrieve which is really nice for being able to winch big fish out away from cover, up out of the rocks. It's a real advantage.

Shifting it is very simple. Right now we're in high speed. To drop it into low gear it's as simple as pushing this button right here. We're now engaged in a 3.1:1 retrieve. You go ahead and fight your fish, conditions change and you need to switch back, it's as simple as pushing this lever right here. We're back into high gear. It's that simple between high and low speed. Very easy to use.

4:41 I've got all of my reels spooled up with Daiwa's Saltiga boat braid. This happens to be 55 pound test here. This little reel can pack as much as 450 yards of a 55 pound braid. It's more than enough line for our style of fishing here.

The drag system on this is new and improved as well. In addition to being a lever drag, something this has got over the older star drag systems is its ultimate tournament drag system design on it. It allows me at full lock here to put 22 pounds of drag on a fish. That's astounding for a reel of this size. This reel needs to be able to stand up to that kind of torque. The way that they do that is with a one piece aluminum frame. It happens to have six corrosion resistant ball bearings. Daiwa's patented that. It's called a CRBB. It happens to have six of them. They're rated up to 12 times longer life span than a standard ball bearing.

5:42 For a little reel this packs a heck of a punch. Two speeds. Unbelievably smooth and powerful drag, 22 pounds at full lock. Very rigid frame, one piece aluminum. Quality ball bearings. Everything I need to get me through a charter season. If this reel can get me through a charter season like it has, I guarantee it's going to put more fish in your boat as well.

6:10 [Closing]

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